Reflective metallic and color-shifting flakes are used in reflective and color-shifting inks or paints. Images printed with the inks or coatings made using the paints have their reflective or color parameters worse than those of a solitary flake due to the gaps between adjacent flakes filled with a less reflective carrier. An increase of pigment concentration can improve the reflectivity of the printed images and paint coatings, but is associated with additional cost, with thicker coatings, and with flakes overlapping one another preventing them from lying flat against the substrate.
Accordingly, it is an object of the instant invention to provide a cost effective highly reflective coating containing reflective or color-shifting flakes. It is another object of the invention to provide flakes for such coatings or inks, as well as a method of manufacturing the flakes enabling said coatings. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of authentication of an object having the reflective coating thereon.